Remembering Alice
by Mainecoon
Summary: A shadow from Megavolt's past returns...


"Deep in the shadows of the night, two flickering eyes burned through the darkness like bright torches. Darkwing Duck, St. Canard's very own caped crime combatant, was on the prowl." Darkwing paused from his dramatic monologue long enough to glance around the corner of a dark alley before continuing to lurk his way down the street.   
  
"No evil was too sinister for him. There was no villain he could not outwit, outmaneuver, and outright beat the pants off of! But tonight his skills would be tested, for tonight his prey was the insane mastermind Megavolt!"   
  
As if on cue, Darkwing darted around a corner just as the name of his foe slipped from his beak. He stood facing the lighthouse. A smug grin spread across his face as he closed in crept forward.  
  
"Take heed, oh foolish evildoer," he continued, "And learn that it is not a good idea to have a secret hideout in a place everyone can see! Silently, the masked wonder inched forward, knowing that the criminal spark plug was his for sure." Darkwing made a mad dash from the brick building he had been standing beside to the lighthouse. He looked up, watching the flickering lights of Megavolt's electric experiments stream haphazardly from the top of the great structure. Darkwing chuckled to himself. "Not the brightest crayon in the box, now, are we?"   
  
He braced himself against the door, preparing to use all of his strength to force it open. The fact that it was unlocked took him quite by surprise. Darkwing tumbled into the dusty entrance room of the lighthouse, but quickly covered his mistake by doing a flip and landing with his gun drawn. "Let them see this duck's dexterity!" he smirked. He let himself bask in the glow of his insanely large ego briefly before rushing up the stairs.  
  
The door leading into the top room was cracked open. Darkwing saw the same flashing blue and yellow light that he had seen from the street below. He took a deep breath, then leaped into the room with his typical entrance in a cloud of purple smoke.  
  
"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the root canal that cleans out the biting tooth of crime!! I… am DARKWING DUCK!!!" He stood in the doorway, his cape billowing behind him in the seabreeze coming in from an open window. Megavolt was nowhere to be seen. The flickering lights came from a nearby television that had been left on to the 24-hour home electrics channel. Darkwing dropped his cape, confused and somewhat annoyed. He had, after all, trailed Megavolt to this location! Was it possible that he had fooled the great Darkwing Duck?   
  
Darkwing refused to believe such a thing. Megavolt would have stayed around just to see the look on Darkwing's face when he entered to a room devoid of naturally conceived life. Darkwing decided to search the room. "Come out, Sparky, I know you're in there!" he yelled as he threw open a closet. He was greeted with a bombardment of falling objects. Then he heard an all-too-familiar laugh coming from the direction of the open window.  
  
"Guess again, duck!" Megavolt's unmistakable voice echoed through the room. Darkwing scrambled out from under the heap of nondescript electrical parts and turned to face the window. Megavolt hung right outside. He wore a contraption on his back that resembled Inspector Gadget's Gadget-Copter, only it wasn't attached to his hat. Darkwing snarled under his breath.  
  
"Just what do you think you're up to, Sparky? And what is that thing you're wearing? A broken pinwheel?"  
  
"Ha ha, very funny." Megavolt stuck his tongue out at Darkwing. "It just so happens that this is my new invention! I call it, the… the uh… the great… um… The Great Escape-o-copter!"  
  
Darkwing laughed. "The Great Fall-o-copter is more like it! That thing wouldn't fly if you tied an airplane to it!"  
  
Megavolt pouted. "Fine then. Just watch me!" With that, he flicked a switch on one of the handles and leaped off the window ledge. The propellers spun around, sputtered, then stopped completely. Darkwing thought he heard the would-be inventor mutter something not fit for printing before plummeting to the cement below.  
  
"Well, that was easy," Darkwing said as he strolled back down the stairs.   
  
He arrived on the scene to find Megavolt staring down the street, his gloved hands still holding the handles tightly though the rest of his machine was scattered in hopelessly bent and broken pieces all over the ground. He had a dazed expression on his face. Darkwing waved his hand in front of his arch-nemesis's goggles. "Hello! Earth calling Sparky!"  
  
Megavolt didn't even blink. "Hullo, Alice," he muttered dreamily. The corners of his mouth tilted up into a crooked smile.   
  
"He must have his head harder that usual this time," Darkwing thought. Without further ado, he dragged Megavolt to his feet and led him off to the city police station.   
The cop on duty looked at Darkwing as if he were as crazy as Megavolt. "But what law has he broken?" he asked or the fifth time, his voice giving away his impatience.   
"I've told you five times now, just about every one in the book!" Darkwing sputtered indignantly. "What do you take me for, an idiot?"  
  
"But what law did he break when you caught him? What did you actually see him do? What have you got **evidence** of??"  
  
"Well, nothing, but…"  
  
"Then I tell you, I can't keep him here if he hasn't broken any laws! It looks to me like he needs medical attention more than police attention anyway." The cop looked at the still-dazed villain.   
  
Darkwing had an idea. "Alright, he's drunk. Is that enough to keep him in custody for the night?"  
  
"Well," said the cop scratching his head. "Sure, I guess so. But I'll have to do a test first. Can he stand up?" Until then, Megavolt had been leaning against Darkwing. Darkwing eased himself out of his enemy's grasp. He stayed standing.  
  
The cop went to Megavolt. "Now, I want you to walk across the room in a straight line. Can you do that?"  
  
Megavolt blinked. He looked at the cop and grinned. "I know you!" he said gleefully. "Hi, Alice!" He promptly proceeded to collapse, unconscious. The cop looked at Darkwing.  
  
"Yep, I'd say that's enough to keep him for observation."  
  
***  
  
The next day, Darkwing sat in his secret hideout pondering. Who was Alice? He had gone through his senior yearbook and the file he kept on Megavolt's criminal activity, but he could find no Alice who had any connection with Megavolt. So who the heck was Alice??  
  
Darkwing grew tired of so much thinking, and decided to turn on the television to relax his brain, or possibly to see if anything on the news would jog his memory. He flipped to the first news show he could find.  
  
"And in local news," a girl duck with too much make-up was saying, "A drunk brought in last night to the local jail has escaped. We have now identified him to be the infamous scoundrel Megavolt. He has currently barricaded himself into the power company. This is a hostage situation! Miranda Renee is live on the scene."  
  
Darkwing was about to leap up and go, but something made him stay behind to listen. The camera flipped to a shot of Miranda Renee, another duck with far too much make-up and a very high-pitched voice, standing outside the power company. There was a large group assembled in the background, and police swarming the outside.  
  
"Well, Danielle, it seems Megavolt has threatened to shut off the city's entire power supply if anyone comes too close, but he has not yet specified any further demands except that he be left alone."  
  
"Do we know who the hostage is, Miranda?"  
  
"Why yes, we do. Authorities have just released information stating that the name of the hostage is Alice Marten. Police are…" Darkwing stopped listening as a photograph of the hostage flashed across the screen. She was a slim, copper-furred ferret with a long bushy tail. In the photograph she wore a long sleeveless dress of deep swirling pastels blended into each other and decorated with small white seashells.  
  
Alice Marten!! He remembered now! She went to school with them in eleventh grade, but was transferred to a private school for her last year. She and Megavolt had been very close friends. Spooky and Sparky, they were called. She was known as Spooky for her mysterious artistic ways, the perfect compliment to Sparky's science. Somehow, that fall last night had made Megavolt remember his friend. Though why he had taken her hostage was still a mystery.  
  
"A mystery that needs immediate solving!" Darkwing said to himself as he hopped onto his motorcycle and set off for the power company.  
  
***  
  
Inside the power company, the scene was unlike anything the authorities or spectators had imagined. Darkwing and a small group of police watched, hidden safely in the shadows on a high catwalk, while Megavolt worked busily to fix his flying machine with Alice sitting nearby. On the table were plans for the machine's new design, obviously torn from Alice's ever-present sketchbook.   
  
"You're still as crazy as ever, Sputterspark," she said. "That was a great scheme you had, pretending to take me hostage and all."  
  
"Did you really like it, Alice?" Megavolt looked up from his work for a moment, his eyes sparkling like a child who has just been given a compliment when he expects criticism. Alice saw the expression.  
  
"You need more friends," she said. "Does anybody ever tell you how good your work really is?"  
  
"It's no good," Megavolt mumbled, turning back to his project. "You saw how well this piece of junk turned out. Even **you** could fix the problem! Besides, I have friends."  
  
"Oh?" She crossed her arms.  
  
"Yes! I have Bushy and that stupid water guy and… ow! Stupid flame torch… and Mr. Banana Head and the boss and…"  
  
"HA!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"HA, I say! HA! And double HA! HAHA! HAHAHA and a disbelieving chortle too." Alice jumped down from the table she was sitting on. She went to her friend and put her hand over his. He lowered the flame torch, looking at her. "Sputterspark, you just don't get it, do you? You've never understood what friendship really is."  
  
Megavolt turned the flame torch off. "Have too," he murmured.   
  
"Oh?" Again she crossed her arms. Megavolt lowered his eyes.   
  
"I knew what it was like with you," he whispered. "You never called me stupid names, or left me to that stupid duck, or.. or.. or said my inventions were hardly worth the scrap metal they were made of!" Megavolt kicked the table. "I hate them!! Why do things always have to end up like this?"  
  
"Like what?" Alice got back onto her table, and motioned for Megavolt to do the same.   
  
"This!" Megavolt exclaimed as he sat next to her. "This place is surrounded by guys in uniforms waiting to drag me off to some creepy white cell with no power outlets… AGAIN. I bet Darkwing's out there too, waiting for the right time to leap in here with his 'I am the terror' stuff the way he always does, scaring my lightbulbs so they're quiet and moody for a week, and whenever he comes in I have to use up half my power supply to get rid of him, or kidnap that kid he's so attached to or something… I don't want to do that!" Alice put her arm around her friend's shoulders when she saw tears ready to spill from his eyes. Megavolt continued: "That kid should be home with her parents, not all cooped up and alone in some dump full of car parts and broken kitchen appliances… I certainly would rather have been elsewhere, but NOOOOO. Who wants a nuclear disaster around the house? It's not fair, Alice! I never wanted to be a stupid supervillian anyway!" He burst into tears.  
  
High above on the catwalk, Darkwing led the police away from the two below. "Come on," he said. "I think we should give them the time they're asking for. The power supply won't go off unless he shuts it off, and I don't think he'll do that." The group left the building as stealthily as they had entered.  
  
Alice held Megavolt close to her. "You can change, you know," she said as she wiped the tears from his eyes. But he shook his head.  
  
"No… They'd never let me. I can't just… just stop being one of them." He sniffed. "It's like betrayal. I… I can't do that…"  
  
"Shh… No, I suppose you're right. Come on, we should get out of here before they decide to come in."   
  
Megavolt nodded. "Yeah, that's true," he said heavily. But he made no move to get up.  
  
Alice took his chin gently and forced him to look at her. "Hey," she said, smiling. "Buck up, friend. I'll go see if there's a safe way out while you get yourself together, okay?"   
  
Megavolt nodded, returning a weak smile. "Sure."  
  
Alice grabbed her sketchbook and ran off in the direction of the main doors. Megavolt took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He took out a green handkerchief and wiped the tears from his face. Alice returned just as he was putting it back into his pocket.  
  
"Sputterspark, you've gotta come see this!" Her eyes were wide in amazement. Megavolt followed as she led him, almost running, to the door. They stepped outside together. Megavolt looked around, astounded. There was not a soul to be seen. The only evidence of the mob scene that had been present only a short while ago was faint tire tracks in the gravel outside the gates.   
  
"Gee…" Megavolt said, hardly believing his eyes. "I guess they got my message for once, huh? Maybe they really ARE too attached to their television sets to risk sending anyone in."  
  
"I don't think so…" Alice said. "Look." She grabbed an envelope that was folded neatly in the grating of the fence.   
  
"What is it?" Megavolt asked as she opened the envelope.   
  
"It's a letter," she said. "Listen: 'I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the toaster oven that falls on your head! I couldn't resist giving you my opening lines, Sparky, even though this time you really didn't do anything worthy of arrest. Darn it. Haha. Next time, try to hold a high school reunion somewhere that doesn't need to be barricaded… Oh, and next time, invite me! Say hello to Alice. Signed, D.' It's from Drake, isn't it? I remember him!" She laughed. "So he's behind this. Darkwing Duck indeed!"  
  
"How did you know…?" Megavolt began.  
  
"The same way I knew that the tall, handsome man wearing a battery and dishwashing gloves was my Sputterspark." She poked his nose, grinning. "That's how I know that only Drake liked Zorro enough to copy the costume in **purple**." They both laughed.   
  
"Well, Miss Marten, shall I walk you home?" Megavolt smiled at her.  
  
"Why, certianly, Mr. Sputterspark," Alice answered in a sophisticated British accent, giggling softly as they had in high school when they called each other "miss" and "mister".  
  
As the sun set over the lighthouse, Megavolt walked his friend back to her apartment. It was just like the old days, when they would work in the school lab until late at night. And just like the old days, Alice bid him farewell with a poke on the nose and the same playful rhyme she said all those years ago: "Tales of Wonderland are told 'til the fire burns down to a sparky ember. But after your fairy tales grow old, I'll be the Alice to remember."  
  
…end…  



End file.
